The Cue Ball
by pooky1402
Summary: Our favorite Penguins are on their adventures again, buzzing around night life New York City. After getting involved in a car accident, they find themselves faced with a past they weren't prepared for. Things have changes so much for a certain character they once knew, and for the worst.
1. Finding the Time

The evening was upon them. One by one, the street lights of down town New York illuminated the sidewalks and streets with a hypnotizing glow.

Life as always appeared normal. The shadows of cars silhouetted against the shops along the streets and people's shapes, hardly noticeable midst the bustling night life of New York city.

A black sleek shape slipped in among the other yellow cabs like a soar thumb, but the black sky above hid it well enough against the streets. A '04 black knight Sun-Fire, an aura like none other surrounded this vehicle. 6 cylinder automatic beauty, with mufflers that purred like a kitten. This was a beast like none other.

Upon rolling down the window of this car, a gentlemen adorned with a black and white tuxedo was revealed. Short spiked hair was ruffled from the gust of night air mixed with gas fumes from other cars, and his brows furrowed with the nasty intake of New York atmosphere. The shades he wore revealed no expression other than deep set-in determination. His hands glided the steering wheel with little movement, years of driving experience had earned the right to drive one handed and the other hand, he was using to mess with his rear- view mirror.

"Skipper, I can't help thinking this might not be a good idea after all" piped a much younger voice from the back seat, behind the passenger. Years of experience had also trained the gentlemen in the drivers side with the patience for endless questions.

"Well we're not turning back.." Skipper retorted back once he had finally adjusted the mirror to his liking. "Rico... put the .47 away, we're not starting any wars tonight, _unless_ I have stated other wise, and last time I checked... I haven't" He eyed the back seat soldier from his mirror with a fixated gaze that lingered till Rico had obeyed and put away the gun with an almost dejected look had his attention not been on something else. These days Rico always seemed in deep thought, as if some unknown force were on the brink of bringing havoc and destruction to them all, but he had yet to voice this.

"Rght sr" He muffled a response, his hand supporting his chin as he gazed out the window, the wind whipping his freshly cut hair wildly.

"Aright, up here we take a right... er I think" The passenger changed his once confident tune upon further examination to his phone.

Skipper simply rolled his eyes behind the shades, not worried any of his men would see this frustrated gesture. "I allowed you to make your secret services phone rather than ordering one on the assigned list, and the one time we actually _need_ to use it's GPS, that thing decides to malfunction and lead us down EVERY dark alley this city has to offer, 3 of which I'd never even visited. Kowalski, that's not something I wish to venture through again..." He replied through gritted teeth and his grip strengthened on the steering wheel.

Private held back a heavy sigh. He had told them to stop and ask for directions as well as possibly getting a map. Once the laughter from all three had finally died down, his suggestion that they get paid up on their cell phone plan and get the internet turned back on never even left his lips. He thought it better to just stare out the snow at the softly falling snow that almost melted before hitting the ground. He still found it fascinating after all these years of living in the big apple. Once the thought of where they were going accidentally slipped back into his mind, his thoughts turned trouble again, and his nerves stood on end once again. He didn't want to go there at all, and he knew the inventor and explosives expert agreed completely with him. Things had changed for a lot of there friends once the majority of them had graduated high school and loved ones had moved on to go to college, join the military, or just wanted to get out of New York. The grim realty of how things had changed for them was very real.

A smile ventured to Privates face as an illuminated Penguin caught his eye in one of the display windows they drove by and his negative thinking slowly ebbed away. He remembered when the lot of them used to volunteer at the zoo, it was what had brought them together as the huge family they had grown to be. The penguins had always been his favorite habitat of the zoo. It was also where he had met her. Her nickname had been Cupid. She was sweet and nice but before they could really establish a good relationship, she had to move back downstate. She had only visited for the holidays. But man did she have such a delightful laugh- "I PROMISE YOU I'M GOING TO SLASH YOUR TIRES YOU AIR HEADED LITTLE- "Rico instinctively reached over and covered Privates ears for the last bit.

"Hey! Wh- What's going on?" Private stared in horror as his mind was knocked from thought and his eyes searched Rico for answers, his nerves almost crashing like a wave breaking at the ocean.

Rico pointed ahead and Private realized just how close they had come to an accident. Someone had tried to cut their way in front of Skipper, so close that Skipper had to swerve to the left to narrowly miss meeting the rear end of dark green '04 Volvo. A cheap looking vehicle at that.

Skipper stopped for a moment, the events still catching up to him. He finally breathed in, the air awakening him some. "Everyone ok?" He managed as he corrected his shades.

"Yeah- I think so..." Kowalski replied, his attention glued to the front of their car. His eyes shrank to needle points. "Skipper, things just got a little bit worse"

"Kowalski, please let's not be a hypochondriac about the whole thing." He grumbled. Kowalski poked him with the end of his clipboard and pointed past the dashboard to the car in front of them.

"Huh?" Skipper asked. Though still annoyed with Kowalski acting so immature, he still found himself trying to find where Kowalski was pointing. His eyes steadily drew upward till he saw they had hit another car. Parked at that.

Kowalski's eyes remained smaller than imaginable. "Skipper... I've been here … once" His voice shook. "I don't have a good memory from that experience, we need to leave. _Now_" His voice started to shake, his urgency had only increased.

Skipper turned the ignition and the motor slowed to a stop. "Kowalski, a good man owes up to this mistakes.. let's just assess the damage. Besides, I don't care if you had lost a limb here... fear doesn't scare me" He replied lowering his shades and giving a look to Kowalski with a raised brow.

Kowalski simply nodded in response, and gulped as he opened his passenger door. His feet felt on fire once he made contact with the black asphalt beneath him, the smell of fresh road filling the air from the recent rainfall that had not turned to snow.

Private and Rico followed in suite and got out of the car, all headed towards the front of the car. Private kept looking to Kowalski almost curiously, the fear crossing his face was one like he'd never seen before and it made him want to hug his friend in response. He had noticed the most amount of change in their tallest comrade. He had almost given up science completely. He'd gone cold turkey on it for years. Private didn't really know the whole story, but he knew it had something to do with one of Kowalski's experiments permanently damaging Doris. Private had longed to ask Kowalski about it but he knew the pain still felt like an open wound towards Kowalski so bad that everyone that knew Kowalski and the situation itself, never brought it up. It was a day that had changed the scientist even to this day. On that fatal, Kowalski had stopped coming out of the make shift lab for weeks until finally he was dragged out. They never saw Doris. It took a while for Kowalski to respond but he "came back to Earth" and sense then had just avoided using science ever. The phone he didn't really consider science, he just didn't want any of the phones Skipper had put on the list so he used one of the phones he had created years back and of course downloaded all the information and data Skipper needed. So much had changed that it was almost odd to see all his men inspecting the cars, like the old days.

Skipper rubbed his chin in thought. "Kowalski, analasys" he ordered, not meaning to come out as forceful as it had.

Kowalski slowly moved his hand along the place of impact between the two cars, scribbling quotes, numbers, and theories sporadically across his yellowed parchment paper. His eyes kept glancing back to the dark building they had ended up in front of, but soon enough the real curiosity of the amount of damage had been caused to the cars drew his full attention.

Rico retrieved the items Kowalski asked for, happy to know finally his stored weapons around his belt were getting some use on this trip.

"Well, it looks like the damage was pretty well even but I think the scale tips a little less in there favor as it were." Kowalski replied finally after much silence and writing.

"..." Skipper pretty much knew what was coming next but just decided to let Kowalski answer the lingering question like an eager school girl getting picked for cheer leading try outs.

"... If we actually _stay _here and wait till the owner gets out here to exchange insurance cards.. we're going to be totally at fault, and paying for the damage. Even though it was the other persons fault for cutting into our lane, there prolly half way from here to Timbuktu so getting their information.. is 90 to1. "

"I like those odds" Skipper replied with a mused expression on his face not realizing anyone was behind them.

"_I DON'T! WHAT DO YOU__'VE DONE TO MY CAR_?" A voice cried out in absolute horror and blind rage.

All men stopped breathing for a second. They exchanged nervous caught off guard expressions but something else was mixed in as well. Why did that voice have a tinge of familiarity to it?

They turned around and couldn't believe who they saw.

"... _WHY ARE YOU GUYS JUST LOOKING AT ME LIKE SOME BIRD BRAIN_?" She asked again, her anger practically breaking the very Earth beneath them.

She rubbed her temples but calmed her voice some when she knew she had caught them off guard and she felt she had the upper hand against them. Her own angered temper had almost caught her off balance so she just took a deep breath.

The four gentlemen still stared at her in shock, almost horror.

After a while, she crossed her arms from the rather uncomfortable silence. "You act like you've never seen a chick before!"She replied hostile. "Also,... you might want to be careful of who you plan to run into around here, most people wouldn't take too kindly to you'll acting quite like such ... tards" she finished.

"Marlene...?" Skipper was the first to speak.

As soon as the word left his mouth, she stopped dead in her tracks. Her mind raced with thoughts and possible theories as to how that name had just been brought up. "H-how do you know that name? W-who are you?" She asked, suddenly on the defense. Her strength started to fail. It took all she had to remain standing with any sort of dignity she was trying to hold onto. _Marlene_ was a distant memory, one that had been buried years ago. It was something she preferred not to think on too often. "I'm sorry to disappoint you but no one around here goes by that name _any_ longe- it's us.." Skipper interrupted painfully.

His men stood beside one another like a wall of soldiers ready to be called forth for the grim realty of the final battle, and removed their shades to reveal four very familiar people to her.

She felt her knees go weak when she recognized all 4 boys standing in front of her. "..." Was all she could manage.

_Authors Note~_

_Well well, NEVER thought I'd be writing for this fandom again xDD. I have recently just found myself really enjoying PoM again and I was randomly struck with this idea a little while back. I have started on the other chapter and so this will either be a 2 part or 3 part story, just depending. This had originally been a 1 shot only but as you can see... it's turned into more lol. Gotta love inspiration! x33 _

_So sorry if the facts on the cars or guns or whatever is inaccurate . I don't really know that much about either and kind of pulled it out of thin air hoping I would had least be close. If you see any mistakes or anything please feel free to tell me and I will correct it. PLEASE BE NICE ABOUT IT. And thank you~_

_So, hope I at least caught someone's attention with this. I apologize for the Doris Kowalski fans out there. ^-^; But for this being a spir of the moment thing I didn't think I've done too badly lol. _

_And as always, comments and constructive criticism are always encouraged :D ~Pooky1402_


	2. Time for Change

**The Cue Ball **

Ch 2

The five waited patiently for someone to break the silence. Was it really them? After all this time, so much had transpired in her life. Why had they come back? He had his chance a _while_ back, and she was _not_ turning back to her old naive ways, she had moved on in life and that was _that_. She was a little taken aback by the complete shock treatment they were each giving her. Had she really changed that much, that the person standing in front of them was someone they no longer could distinguish? That recognizing her only came cause her voice render the memories? A cold realty starting to sink in heavy in her limbs and for a moment she dared tempt her self with going up to them, slapping them pretty hard across the face, and turning her back on them. But even through all the changes of who she was trying to be, that character trait didn't ring through, it just wasn't her.

A cold breeze swept past them, chilling them to the bone and making her shiver inwardly. It knocked her from her train of thought and that little bit of sympathy she had felt for them slivered away as quick as it had come. She rolled her eyes bluntly. "C'mon, you guys are obviously not used to New York out doors, lets get you inside before you make the whole town sick with all that... _swag_" she flicked her eyes across there dress ware. * _Tuxedos worn out on the town on typical New York night? What a typical for you to make a grand entrance Skipper *_, she told herself. She had noticed their appearance hadn't seem to change a whole lot since last they'd met, other than Kowalski looking a little more wary and Rico looking more lost in thought that usual.

Skipper's brow furrowed and he opened his mouth to respond to that uncalled for remark when he felt Private tug at his sleeve. The look he gave him said enough. They had come all this way, don't blow it all in a few seconds just yet. He quickly took lead and without batting an eye made sure his weapon was within quick reach on his leather belt. His men following suite and the four felt secure enough in proceeding inside.

None the less, their entrance created quite a stir. The inside patrons narrowed their eyes at the four following but seeing as who they were with, they quickly released the stress they were feeling and continued enjoying their evening. Poker tables lined the outside edge of the joint. A rather large bar lay at the back against the wall, little "Tiki" stands placed here and there were stocked with napkins, condiments, plastic swords for drinks, and other small non parishables. Towards the front of the joint stood a dance floor and at the back in front of the bar were 3 pool tables, all 3 crowded with players and on lookers with drinks.

"..." Skipper was the first to take notice of the place's interior. His shades still remained over his eyes and he scanned the room for any potential dangerous people. All of them looked like typical New York night life ruffians. "Nice group of fellows you got here..." he muttered just under his breath. Someone wearing clothes the could NOT have been worn any tighter eyed him with interest and he simply chuckled. His eyes kept moving around the room.

He looked back at Marlene who flashed him a heated expression. "She's been with more guys in the this joint than you wanna think about, I'd steer clear of her, but of course I could care less"

"Ow Ms. Marlene … last I checked simply looking at someone wasn't giving them the invitation that I wanted to hook up.." He replied almost defensively but still kept his cool demeanor about him.

"Yeah ok, and I'm definitely clueless that you four are single..." She rolled her eyes.

Skipper just kept his next comment to himself. He was starting to notice a bit of change in Marlene, more than he was used to.

The clothing style she had taken up was definitely different than what he was used to but yet again, this comment he kept inside as well.

She finally turned back to them, "Um you guys want a drink... maybe... what?!" She asked innocently but re-gained her annoyed expression.

Private was desperately trying to read something on the back wall written in red, but the other 3 stared at her with stunned expressions.

She looked down spotting that her stomach had reveled small white diamond. "A belly button ring, really?" Skipper replied, more in disbelief than anything.

Back in high school, she always made belly button rings, and gauges. She told Skipper and the gang to never follow after Julian and get one thinking it makes you cool, that didn't make you cool in her eyes but... "I guess things really have changed.." He replied, despair filling his expression.

Marlene simply glared at him as she tugged at her shirt to pull it over the belly ring.

"..." He didn't say anything at that gesture. He mentally slapped himself, that wasn't supposed to be heard out loud, it just slipped out before he could do anything. He was wanting to make peace by coming here, not make the whole joint uncomfortable with them.

"I think it looks rather pretty " Private replied genuinely.

Marlenes hard expression softened at this, "At least some guys aren't jerks" she spoke smiling.

Skipper *** **humphed * at this, knowing the comment was directed at him entirely. "I'll have Mr. Pibb" He replied lowly.

Marlene whipped her head around at him. Her expression at changed to pure amusement. "Soda...?" She stifled a laugh.

"I'm the designated driver" His words dripped with vile, he didn't realize his choice of drink was going to get him ridiculed. He was starting to think this entire trip had been a hopeless venture. "I'm sorry I can't get as drunk..." his voiced trailed off as his look ventured around the place again out of instinct.

"_What?!_" Marlene asked again... her neck swinging back to look him straight in the eye. "You've got something to say, why don't you spill it instead of hiding... like a coward." She challenged.

Skipper didn't back down this time when he felt Private tugging at his sleeve again. "I _saaaid... _I'm _sorry_ I can't get as drunk as your _friends _here, have a hang-over the size of Atlantis, and come home the next day whenever I feel like it.. I've got _responsibilities _and.. oh wait, I've also got _self discipline_" He remarked. "At_ least_ I don't-"

"I think you've done enough damage..." Kowalski interrupted him, grabbing him by the shoulders to silence him. Kowalski gave him a long serious stare. He couldn't believe he had let his temper get the better of him just then, and now it was too late.

The sound that followed was like none other, so in sync it was almost impossible. The rough scrapping of wooden chairs sliding away from their tables, and the slick clean *shink * of knifes being unsheathed from their leather holsters, the smell of death ringing out like a long awaited hiss of war to at last be called.

* * *

_Holy Cow! D: I hadn't expected for it to be THIS long till I posted chapter 2! _

_Geez! Oh well... xD As you can see, it's going to be a 3 parter lolol. I honestly hadn't planned to have it end with the knife nonsense but hey I like how it ended so why not ^-^ A cliff hanger muhahaha._

_Also, The cover image original iiiis here~ art/8-ball-blur-1813637_

_As always, I love comments/ suggestions/ constructive criticism. Any questions? Feel free to contact me _

_~Pooky1402 _


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